Today I learned… in code

A lot happens between "Hello World" and "Supreme Master Programmer". Here, we share little discoveries made along the way. The more frustrating something was, the more likely it is to end up here on this site!

How to fix “Failed to retrieve directory listing” in FileZilla 3.10 with Bluehost

This post is 4+ years old and describes a very old problem yet it continues to draw visitors experiencing this problem (or similar). The method it describes is not secure by modern standards. You should update to the latest Filezilla and use SFTP.

Here’s a dumb thing I lost 2 hours on today: the new FileZilla (version 3.10) uses FTP over TLS by default, but not all hosts support this (like mine).

In my case, I was trying to log into my Bluehost account via FileZilla, which I hadn’t done in a month+ while I was moving and changing ISPs, so that made it even more difficult to narrow down the cause of this error.

By far the fastest, easiest fix is to uninstall FileZilla 3.10 and go back to an earlier version. I went back to FileZilla version 3.7.3 and I was finally able to get some work done.

It’s not a great long-term solution, but until hosts support TLS there isn’t much else to do (that I know of – leave a comment if you know better). In the meantime, here’s a Filezilla forum thread on the issue that affected users can follow.

Only the obvious one: It’s less secure. If someone is sniffing traffic on your network, they will be able to see your password and the contents of the files you transfer whereas a TLS connection would leave these encrypted.

Thanks a bunch! I have been sitting with this problem for 2 days, following all sorts of advice that messes with my Firewall and server and whatnot. I am literally sooooooo grateful for this advice that I feel like jumping through my own ceiling. Had to write an email to my host, apologizing for wasting their time by asking THEM to solve the problem for me. Stupid Filezilla, sheesh! I’m gonna have a coffee break now. Once again: THANK YOU SO MUCH!

It’s not a great long-term solution, but until hosts support TLS there isn’t much else to do (that I know of – leave a comment if you know better). In the meantime, here’s a Filezilla forum thread on the issue that affected users can follow.home fixer

I uninstall 3.14.1 and went clear back to 3.9.06 and I’m still getting the
Directory Listing Failed, empty directory message. What’s left to try? Funny thing, I use FZ about every 2 to 3 days and have no problems at all with every update until this one a little while ago. Am trying to upload updates to my website. Anyone?

I cannot thank you enough for your solution. I have wasted so many hours that runs into days to find this fix. I read forums trying numerous blogs, read articles, watched videos. It’s your solution that worked.